Business
Mobile money gains traction in Haiti despite slow start
Getting money in Haiti can be a harrowing experience: Bank branches are few, most of them are in the capital and a simple transaction can take half a day. Cash machines are scarce as well, and often broken or empty.
So aid agencies trying to remake Haiti after a catastrophic earthquake are promoting a new way to bypass banks altogether: easy money transfers by cellphone. Donors have pumped millions of dollars into the plan, which lets people save and move money in mobile phone accounts and quickly withdraw it at a network of retail stores around the country.
As yet, though, few Haiti citizens are buying the idea, which has become one of many post-quake projects to fall short of expectations and a reminder of how hard it is to change a society that has been repeatedly set back by political upheaval and natural disasters.
Backers admit adoption has been slower than expected, though they remain optimistic it will expand, in part because so many people in Haiti rely on cellphones, often to find jobs. Some 800,000 people initially registered for the service, even if only about 22,000 people regularly use it.
The service “has gone on in the face of political violence, political instability, cholera, gas shortages, you name it, and we’re this far,” said Greta Greathouse, a director of one of the donor agencies involved in the improvement of financial services in Haiti. “Does it mean we’re there yet? No. We want it to be sustainable and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”
(More: Haiti embraces mobile money)
A spokesman for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Chris Williams, said by telephone that the project is a “work in progress” but that it’s going well.
“It’s not a huge surprise to find some disconnect between the number of registered users and currently active users,” Williams said. “It takes some time to build up to scale.”
